Your questions answered: ASTRAEA autonomous planes | In-depth | The Engineer
"The first “trailblazer” is likely to be the US Department of Defense. Now that withdrawal from Afghanistan is well under way, there will be a large number of “drones” based in the US. The second will be the deployment of key sub-systems developed for the UAS market in manned aircraft. Here the system is not taking over from the human, but assisting in maintaining situational awareness and helping to select the safest action to take. The first commercial uses of UAS in unrestricted airspace, I believe, will be: freight; inspection of key infrastructure, such as power lines or oil pipelines; and agricultural surveillance, e.g., of livestock or crops.: